With it being Fall, it meant things were... well... falling. Falling leaves, falling fruit...

Falling friends.

Ashmedai meandered through the orchard- his old home land. These lands were at least good for finding fermented fruit. Honestly, though, he missed his pirate gang. At least they made their own alcohol in abundance. Getting drunk there wouldn't be hard. Of course, then he would have to deal with his crew members and he didn't really feel like that either.

Sighing, Ashmedai took another bite of bitter fruit and kept walking. He was a little better off now that he couldn't feel his body a whole lot, but he still didn't feel drunk enough.

Then... there is was.

A large fruit-bearing tree stood before him. It's twisting, gnarly branches extended, nearly barren of fruit. Ash's eyes followed the branches down to the trunk, and the trunk to the ground. A mound- no- a mountain of old fruits lay by the tree's base.

Ashmedai went straight to the tree and began to gorge himself on the fermented fruits.

It probably wasn't the smartest decision, but hey, he was mourning.

OOC: liquid time a lil way into her latest excursion


Moving at a bouncy trot, Cael was trying to keep her mind in the present and keep her eyes open for anything interesting to report back to Shaye with. She'd already had a successful visit to the hot springs and was making her way through the south trying to be as thorough as possible as she traveled. It was sort of weird actually having a purpose to her travels, and even stranger was the fact that for once there was someone specific she kind of wanted to share more of it with... Oof, no, nope, today was just a Cael on errands day.

Weaving through the trunks of the many fruit bearing trees, Cael wondered if these might be some pretty good hunting grounds when the trees were full of fruit. She tried not the step on any of the squishy, half rotten remains of pears and apples that littered the ground, but she managed to land on one particularly rotten pear when she was distracted by... chewing? After a bit of searching, she found a grey wolf standing over some fruit, eating like his life depended on it.

"What on earth are you doing?" she asked, genuinely curious what possessed the man to do this. There were probably a whole host of things that might taste better than squishy fruit bits...

A voice called out to him and Ashmedai looked up quickly, causing his vision to spin enough to topple him. As he struggled to focus on who the voice belonged to, he honed in on the brown coat.

"... Sparrow?" he muttered.

No, as his vision caught up to his motion, he realized it was someone else. He stood slowly, steadying himself on the tree. "What does it matter to you what I do? Dontcha have... somethin' to do?"

He nabbed another sour fruit. Okay maybe that one was just rotten. He spit it out and tried for another. Yes, much better. He chewed it thoughtfully thoughtlessly for a moment.

"What? You never seen a wolf getting drunk off of fruits before?"

Eloquent, this one. Not that Cael was normally all that well-spoken herself, but, this guy was clearly pretty intoxicated and it was sort of funny. "No, not really," she lied. This was turning out to be a lot more interesting than her other plans for the day, so she was willing to take a little time out of her schedule for whatever this was.

Watching as the man picked at more of the fruits until he found one he apparently deemed satisfactory, Cael canted her head with a skeptical expression openly written across her face. This was weird.

"What? You never seen a wolf getting drunk off of fruits before?"" the guy asked, his speech sounding juust a little bit slurred to her. Cael snorted and shook her head. "Nope, can't say I have. Keep going though, don't let me bother you, I imagine this will only get more entertaining." She double checked that there was a reasonably safe distance between them juuust in case he didn't take too kindly to her remarks.

The girl said she didn't have much else to do. Great. If Ashmedai was sober or wanting any company, the two might have gotten along fine, but he wasn't in the mood for this right now. He grunted in response.

She said she had never seen a wolf getting drunk before, but to not let that deter him. He rolled his eyes as best as he could although even he could tell it was a sloppy expression.

"Oh, you'll watch, butcha won't join?" Ashmedai scoffed. "Typical."

He took another bite of fruit, opening his mouth to speak while still chewing.

"At first I thought you were my good friend Sparrow, but you're not- she's dead. Might as well be, though. She'd never join me in getting drunk either." He swallowed the fizzy fruit along with the lump in his throat. "Probably better for her, had to keep up appearances n all. But what's your story, why you out here just... watchin? You a voyeur?"

Shrugging, she eyed the grey man with a lopsided smile playing at her lips. "I mean, I try not to eat rotting things as a general rule. I also prefer to keep slightly less mopey company but," she shrugged again, finding herself endlessly amused by the wolf she'd found by chance.

Leaning a little further away as the man spoke and sent a few bits of fruit flying from his open jaws, Cael listened as he rambled on but her eyes flicked back to his face when he mentioned sparrow. Keeping her expression carefully neutral, unsure what to make of this guy. He knew Sparrow? Huh. Cael wasn't really sure she could do mushy sad talk right now. She'd opt to not engage with that bit, might bring up too many emotions.

"Not much of a story. I'm a navigator and I'm out doing exploring things that navigators do. Or something like that. But I mean, if you're really hoping for a drinking buddy I suppose I could join you. If you're not dead from all that fruit I suppose it won't kill me." Grabbing one sickly sweet smelling... apple? Hard to tell at this point when it was all discolored and weird looking, but she took a bit bite out of it and chewed with all the caution in the world. It didn't really taste that great... Maybe it'd grow on her?

The girl snarked that she made a rule not to eat rotten things.

"A grave mistake, my friend," Ash mumbled in response. She also said she preferred slightly less mopey company. "Bitter," Ash corrected. "Not mopey. Bitter wolf, bitter fruits. It just fits!"

She did, however, eventually decide to drink with him, much to Ash's delight. He masked his excitement, save for the wicked twinkle in his eye. He watched her chew on it for a moment before asking.

"Well, are ya dead yet, Miss Navigator?" he asked, taking a moment to swallow. "It's not so bad when you get used to it, and the effects can be applied for many- uh- applications."

He wasn't sure how to voice the many stages of drinking and all the possible effects. Sometimes it was a light bubbly feeling with friends between raids. Other times it was a heavy, lustful feeling deep in the gut. Sometimes it was a sloppy, spinning sadness. Which would happen today, Ash wondered to himself, a light smile playing on his features.

Cael could only snort at his responses and shake her head with a bemused grin. He was something else alright. Then again, Cael supposed she could understand being bitter after someone died... Yeah. Oof. Those were some feelings that line of thought was bringing up alright. Feelings she wasn't keen on contemplating any more.

"I very well could be, only time will tell. Guess if we drop dead like flies we can be dead and bitter together," she mused, quickly taking another bite of fruit. It was sort of gross but she sort of didn't care as much with each subsequent bite. Hey - if it was this dude's go-to then maybe there was something to it. Better take juust a few more large bites and find out. For science... or something. "You know, you make an astonishing lack of sense..." she laughed, shaking her head at the ashen male. Staring at him for a second, her next question was lost to her for a moment before she finally exclaimed, "OH! What's your name? I'm pretty sure it's only fair we introduce ourselves iff we're getting drunk."

Ashmedai was delighted to be able to share his passion- drinking- with someone else. She said something about possibly dropping dead and Ash tilted his head with a smirk, "To dropping dead, then!" he said as a toast.

She said he didn't make a whole lot of sense. Well, he couldn't disagree with that. "Life doesn't make sense, so it only makes sense that I try to make less sense to suit its pace. If you try to hard to make sense of the senseless, you'll just go crazy. But if you go crazy and stop making sense, then you're living life the way life lives it."

Was he making sense or was he drunk rambling? He wasn't sure. Was he actually drunk yet? Tipsy? Drink, drank, drunk? He wasn't sure.

She insisted they introduce themselves, saying it was only fair if they were to get drunk together.

"I, for one, have gotten drunk with many a nameless stranger. Many of them became good friends- couldn't call them by name, but if you had alcohol, they would come anyway so you never really needed their name to begin with." Ashmedai offered a sharp smile. Sometimes being friends in passing was better. To leave on good terms and never think of the fate of each other. It was better than investing much time just to figure out  they went and died later.

"However, I'm Ashmedai Imperialis. The most handsome and charming of the Imperialis kids if I do say so myself. And you, Miss Navigator?"

That smile that betrayed how close she was to laughing wouldn't leave her lips as she listened to him ramble on in a senseless tirade about the sense or lack or sense in trying to make sense of senseless things in a life that made no sense. Was this headache from him or the fruit? Probably both. She took a few more bites in the hopes that fermented fruit might be the root of all sense. "I'll tafe your word for if" she said around a mouthful, shaking her head to clear it of the nonsense that just entered.

"Sounds like a hell of a life you lead, sir. Guess I'm jus too darn friendly to go without introducing myself, although a lack of personal investment in a passing acquaintance does have some appeal, not gonna lie." It'd be great if she could translate that sort of bare minimum relationship to pack life. Then again... Kinda already had. Not like Cael really went outta her way to go bond and make friends. She didn't even talk to Corvus or Peggy all that much even though they were probably the closest to friends she had in the pack. Oops.

"uh huh. Guess I'll just have to take your word for that too, then. I'm Caelestis. No fancy last name though unfortunately," she mused. Why didn't her parents have last names? She'd never really considered that before. They were just Caelum and Zephyr. She was just Caelestis. She'd make one up but that might be kind of weird... "How many Imperialis' are there? I never heard that name before."

The woman said she could understand the appeal of not having a commitment in relationships and Ash nodded knowingly, a warm and plastered smile on his face. She also gave her name.

"Well Caelestis No-fancy-last-name, nice to meetcha," he cheered with another toast of sour fruit. "Alsthough Caelestis Navigator sounds good too. Nice to meet you, Miss Navigarot."

He thought his joke was funny and didn't stop to consider whether Cael did or not. Then she said she had never met another Imperialis before. Ash scoffed indignantly.

"There's A LOT of us! My father was the ruler of Imperium! There's Angelus, Evangeline, Seraphim, and Chaos, then me, then- with Rhythm, a Abaven/Destruction woman- Rhys, and Rhyme." Ashmedai tried to count... Were there more? "And that's not including any of our own kids! Mine don't live here, though. But others might! Who knows!"

There were a LOT of them, weren't there.

"How 'bout you? Any other no last namers running around here?"

The bitter fruit really helped her deal with his... sense of humor? If you could call it that? It took a good minute before she realized he was trying to make a joke. It didn't land. Maybe she was just a tough crowd, who knew. "I've probably been called worse, so I'll take it," she finally said with a soft sort of laugh and another large bite of fruit. It was starting to make her feel funny, but like, in a good way.

He went on to count off a good number of Imperialis', listing off a whole bunch of unfamiliar names, and finally getting to one familiar one. "Ohhh, heyy, wait, okay, I know Rhyme. None of the other oness though. He's... pretty cool I guess." She didn't really know him all that well so she couldn't actually say for sure. "I dunno what Imperium is though. Never heard of that either." Apparently there was still a lot she didn't know about the world around her and it's inhabitants.

He asked if there were more of her around and Cael canted her head, thinking hard to recall what she'd learned from her mother a ways back. "Uhhm... I might have one or two older sisters that are alive somewhere. They coulda left the continent by now though, and we never met so prolly wouldn't know if we did meet. That's okay though, meeting wolves is overrated anyway. I prefer to go 'n see new places instead of new wolves."

Ashmedai's joke didn't quite hit but he wasn't bothered. She's warm up to him in due time, he just knew it.

She said she knew Rhyme. That was right. He was living in Abaven.... of course. He was half Destruction, after all. She said he was cool, she guessed. Ashmedai scoffed.

"No he isn't," Ash said with a smile that could suggest he was joking even though he wasn't. "His sister got all the good genes."

She said she didn't know Imperium and Ash half feigned shock, "Why, only the best pack to have ever existed!"

Cael went on to talk about what family she may or may not have. She said that meeting wolves was overrated.

"Aww, c'mon, meeting people is half the fun of new places," He said. "If you had kept tou yourself, you'd have never met me!"

Still, an idea formed in his head.

"Where do you wanna go? I'm sure you gotta get back to Abaven sometime, but I'm always looking for someone to adventure with- especially since the pirate band isn't here right now. Oh! We could go meet them sometime! Wanna go meet pirates?"

Ashmedai found himself inching closer and closer to Cael as he spoke, a sort of drunken, bubbly excitement boiling up inside of him. They could be friends!